It’s the first day of spring and that means the Spring 2016 issue of Ray’s Road Review has been published. Please feel free to drop by and read some fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Additionally, we’re going on indefinite hiatus, which makes us a bit sad. My severely poor health makes it no longer possible for me to hold down my poetry editor duties and Gretchen and Chris are going to pursue their own things for the time being. At some point in the future, we hope to come back and start back up, but that’s probably a ways down the road. I feel proud to have been a part of something that has become such an excellent literary journal and I’d like to thank Chris for giving me the opportunity and Gretchen for being a big part of it.

Since I’m the poetry editor, I may as well plug the poets. They are Ruth Z. Deming, Ernest Williamson, R.T. Castleberry, Ross Knapp, Michael H. Brownstein, and Lowell Jaeger. There’s also a book review. It’s a pretty good group of poets representing wide styles of poetry with a variety of subjects. If you enjoy contemporary poetry, check it out.

Why don’t so many people read or adhere to magazine submission guidelines? This is the eternal mystery for me. As a magazine poetry editor, I have published a set of submission guidelines that I expect people to follow when submitting. I don’t think it’s too much to ask. When you’re a writer submitting to a magazine, presumably you’re putting yourself and your work out there as a professional to be taken seriously, not as a schmuck. You don’t submit whatever you want however you want. Every publication has guidelines. One of the first things you learn when writing and beginning publishing is to read and follow guidelines. It’s just common sense. One of the easiest ways to make sure your work doesn’t get read is to not go by the guidelines. One of the easiest ways to make sure your work does get read is to follow the guidelines. Simple.

Editors set up guidelines to streamline things and make their jobs a little easier. They get deluged with submissions. Sometimes it’s simply overwhelming. If everyone submitting can stick to the same format, it really helps. But if people are submitting all sorts of ways, it can really throw you off. It also helps to level the playing field. If everyone follows the same guidelines, presumably there won’t be anyone getting preferential treatment. That’s not always the case, but it helps.

My guidelines are a little strict, but certainly not as bad as many magazines I’ve submitted to over the years. More lenient than many even. And my response time is better than average. One of the things that has mystified me, however, is how many poetry submissions our nonfiction editor gets. I mean, what the hell? Why? Our fiction editor never gets any. I, as the poetry editor, get a ton. But our nonfiction editor gets quite a few and forwards them to me. And you know what? They ALWAYS suck! Always. They’re horrible. It’s like sixth grade poetry. And they obviously haven’t read the guidelines, which state to email the poetry submissions to the poetry editor, giving my email address. So, they’re not to be taken seriously, since they don’t take their own submission seriously. And I’ve taken to trashing them. I used to read over them and consider them. And respond. But at the beginning of the year, I grew tired of the idiocy and posted a post on the website telling people this practice will no longer be tolerated and any poetry submission sent to the wrong editor will simply be deleted unread. And still they come in. Dolts! What the hell are they thinking? Who emails poetry submissions to nonfiction editors? I would never think of doing that. That’s just damned stupid. In fact, when I was heavily submitting, I tried hard to find out the name of the poetry editor and mailed my submission to him or her by name. The pros who send me submissions read over our masthead on the website and often do that to me. You can tell who the pros are by their submissions. There’s a reason why they have the good credits. They write better poems and they follow submission guidelines. Simple.

If any of my readers can shed some light on why anyone would submit their poetry submissions to the nonfiction editor, I’d love to hear it. Thanks.

Of course, since I’m the poetry editor, I have to acknowledge the poets in this issue. They include Lyn Lifshin, Robert Joe Stout, Terry Savoie, Alan Catlin, Richard Fein, and Colin Dodds. Good stuff. Good poets. Check them out.

Since today is the first day of winter, I’d like to announce the publication of the Winter 2015 issue of Ray’s Road Review. Read, enjoy. I hope you like it.

Since I’m the poetry editor, I may as well promote the poets. There are some really great poets in the new issue of Rays Road Review. They are Simon Perchik, Bruce McRae, Lyn Lifshin, Michael Mark, William Miller, and Rich Ives. Really good poetry. Check it out.

I’d like to announce the publication of the Fall 2014 issue of Ray’s Road Review, featuring a lot of great new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. This issue also marks the passing of the nonfiction and photography editing baton from Kelley Clink to Gretchen VanOstrand. Many thanks to both women.

Since I edit the poetry, I may as well plug the poets in this issue. They are Carolyn Ogburn, BZ Niditch, Ruth Z. Deming, Marcella Benton, Tamer Mostafa, and Erren Kelly. I hope you enjoy their work.

I’m pleased to announce the publication of the Summer 2014 edition of Ray’s Road Review. We have some excellent fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and photography. Please read and enjoy. (However, please don’t submit any poetry right now, because I’m swamped with submissions.)

The poets we feature in this issue are Charlie O’Hay, Scott Laudati, Jona McNerney, Len Krisak, and R.T. Castleberry. The Fall issue is full and we’re reading for the Winter 2015 issue now. The submissions keep coming in. I hope you like this issue.

Damyanti Biswas is an author, blogger, animal-lover, spiritualist. Her work is represented by Ed Wilson from the Johnson & Alcock agency. When not pottering about with her plants or her aquariums, you can find her nose deep in a book, or baking up a storm.